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Monday, February 6, 2012

Race Report: JackRabbit Indoor Triathlon #2

Last year I did a thorough job of blogging these races. Unfortunately, this year's report is going to be much scantier and with fewer pictures. As you may know, this series takes place at various gyms around the city and involves a 10 minute pool swim, 30 minute spin session, and 20 minute run on the treadmill. Participants' scores depend not only on the distances completed, but also on the distances of their opponents. Therefore, if the field for a particular triathlon is more competitive overall, it would require higher distance numbers to place the same as in a less competitive race.

I signed up for this one sort of last minute, as my friend Geri asked me if I'd be doing any of them and it occurred to me that there would be one that weekend. After mulling it over for a couple of days, I signed up for it the day before, which was shortly after the Manhattan Half. I'm not sure that completing the Manhattan Half had any impact on my performance. I didn't feel like it did and my numbers weren't too bad.

This race took place at Asphalt Green, which is a rec center located on the Upper East (far East) side of Manhattan. It's a pain getting up there and every time I go I underestimate transportation time. This day was no exception. I aimed to leave my apartment at 4 (giving myself an hour) and ended up leaving at 4:30. I arrived at 5:25, which was just in time for the very last heat.

My heat consisted of myself and some, ahem, attractive gentlemen. I feel like I made mention of this before but it's worth noting again. Also, I'm pretty sure I raced in the same heat with these guys last year. Anyway, they're really good. I'd be interested to know more about the distances in which they specialize and how they do in normal outdoor tris.

Swim: I wasn't expecting much. I just haven't put in enough time at the pool and my score showed it. I completed 16 lengths, which is around what I normally do and one length less than my personal best of 17 (achieved at last year's championships). This earned me a 23/100 score on the swim.

Bike: In this tri format, the bike may be my strongest leg. Since it's done on spin bikes, they're all set to no resistance and so there is no accounting for anyone's ability to bike terrain with definition. There's also only so fast you can pedal a bike with no resistance, in my opinion. At least, the effort to payoff ratio progression becomes way too steep at a certain point. So maybe it's not that it's my strongest, it's more that there's a limit to how well anyone can do it, from me to the best triathlete in the race. In any case, I biked 17.97 miles in 30 minutes, earning me a bike score of 74/100.

Run: Though I would like to have run an even 2.5 miles in 20 minutes, I was happy with my ultimate result of 2.46. If completing a half marathon in snow the day before had any impact on my race as a whole, this is where it would have shown. Maybe it did, maybe it didn't. What I do know is that I managed 2.46 in 20 minutes and honestly was left with too much at the end. I could have gone (and plan to go, next time) harder. Another victory here: I did it sans music. Score: 65/100.

Overall, my combined scores were good enough for a three-way tie for 8th place. This means I can compete in the championships on March 4th, which is approaching frighteningly quickly. My goal numbers for that race are swimming 18 lenghts, biking at least 18 miles, and running 2.5. The trifecta.

I'd also like to mention and give massive kudos to the winner of this race, who swam 34 lengths, biked 19.69 miles, and ran 3.08 miles. Those are monster numbers. She had a perfect 300 score and might have even been the overall winner of the race, based on a cursory review of the men's numbers.

Indoor Tri #3 happened yesterday and I believe Team Lipstick was set to race in that one. That can only mean that competition was really stiff. Good thing I got in when I did!